As I was preparing for the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft, I heard a tremendous story from the man who was selected #2 by the Detroit Lions, Ndamukong Suh. To give you a little background on Suh, he's 6'4", 307 lbs. and played defensive tackle at the University of Nebraska. Suh won every major Defensive Player of the Year award in college football in 2009 because of a season that included 12 sacks, 82 tackles, and 23 tackles for loss of yardage. The game that placed Suh on the map was the Big 12 Conference Championship game in Arlington against Texas. There, he registered 4.5 sacks on Texas's gunslinger at QB, Colt McCoy, and made 12 tackles. Though Nebraska lost 13-12, Suh earned MVP honors for that game. With Suh being drafted by the Lions and getting ready to sign a contract with millions of dollars attached to it, he made a promise to his university that he can fulfill. He is going to give $2.6 million for the university to create a state-of-the-art training facility that will dawn his name. If truth were told, many of us have made promises in our past that we wanted to fulfill, whether it was to be the best husband, the best wife, the best son, the best daughter, the best mother/father, and the list goes on and on. Aren't you glad that God gives us life and opportunity to fulfill these promises? Today's text presents us with an awesome example of a man who had a promise to fulfill and did just that.
1st Kings serves as the back drop of today's main scripture. This book is one of 12 books which comprises the History Books of the Old Testament or the term Deuteronimistic History (how history was made through the obedience/disobedience of the Word God gave the Israelites in Deuteronomy). Within this introductory chapter, we are introduced to a feeble and weary version of King David. He cannot keep warm at night and though his people selected him a beautiful young lady to look after him, he did not become intimate with her. As King David was on his way to death, we find the third of four sons, Adonijah, whose actually the heir apparent because of the deaths of Amnon and Absalom, doing everything he can to assume the throne. On the other hand, we find out that David's main people and advisors were not so keen on Adonijah being king and more importantly, David had not been aware of what Adonijah was trying to do. Have you ever known someone ready to be king/queen and were not ready to assume the throne because God was not ready for them? As the text continues, we find Nathan telling Bathsheba of significance. He tells her to talk with King David and ask him will he fulfill the promise/oath he made that Solomon would be king over Adonijah. He did this because it would save her life and Solomon's life. Upon the advice of Nathan, Bathsheba pays a visit to King David in his palace and asked the question if David was going to fulfill his promise to make Solomon king because Adonijah has made himself king and the eyes of Israel is on you to make this decision in who is going to rule next. Has the eyes of the world ever been on you to make a crucial decision like where you are going to work, where you are going to school, who are you getting married to, and other things? Well, this was the position King David was in and this places us at the point of our main scripture.
As Bathsheba positioned herself in front of King David, the text begins, "The king then took an oath". What blesses me here is the fact though David is 70 years old and he's weary, he was a man who still wanted to fulfill his promise. Oftentimes in this life, we often run into trucebreakers or we have been guilty of truce breaking ourselves. I'm glad that Jesus continuously gives us life and opportunity to fulfill promises and learn how to be truce makers instead of trucebreakers. As David took the oath, he says, "As surely as the LORD lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble, I will surely carry out today what I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel: Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place". Through his pains and aches, David was going to be man enough to fulfill his promise and his baby boy, Solomon, would be the king instead of Adonijah. As Chapter 1 concluded, we find that Adonijah was scared for his life and humbled himself. Through his humbling, Solomon found favor on him and told him to go home.
In closing, Suh will be signing a contract where he can fulfill his promise to the University of Nebraska. I know that Cornhusker land will be happy about that. In today's text, we find that through David fulfilling his promise, Solomon became king, instead of Adonijah. Through Solomon and the wisdom he received from the Lord, the Temple of the Lord was built and the lineage of the ultimate Promise Keeper was kept. Because of Jesus Christ, the Ultimate Promise Keeper, He fulfilled Old Testament scripture and saved us! My encouragement to you is that if you made a promise, do what you can within reason to fulfill it!
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